The Song of Odo
by Nimbus 1944
Summary: Finally, the sad tale of Odo the Hero can be told.


**The Song of Odo**

You've heard the closing verse in HBP.Our archeologists have uncovered what alleges to be the rest of the age-old ballad, under a loose floorboard of a pub at Dappling.

* * *

**Now gather 'round, fellows, let's sing us the saga  
Of Odo the hero, born one happy day --  
His father from Giggleswick, in all its glory;  
His mother from Wigglesworth, farther away.**

_At seventeen, Odo was given a wand,  
__And was given a tall pointy hat;  
__A witch and a wizard had given him birth,  
__And a wizard he'd be; that was that!_

Now men came to town for revenging and killing,  
For Otto the Thieving had done someone ill;  
They mistook his name and they seized Odo's parents,  
And sent them to gaol, and then sought Odo still.

_And Odo, boy wizard, could do naught but hide,  
__For he knew not a charm nor a spell;  
__If he was to live, then he'd just have to learn  
__All his spells, charms and hexes quite well._

If he was to rise up, he'd just have to train up  
Then rescue his parents from gaol, all in all;  
The books said a school would be found in the Highlands,  
Four days of hard march north of Hadrian's Wall.

_So Odo the wanderer set out from home  
__With his wand safely hid, as a rule;  
__He'd pose as a oaf, with his hat inside out,  
__While he searched for the lone magic school._

And as he walked northward through bonnie Glenfinnan,  
A farm girl so pretty walked home down the way.  
His hat inside out was a cause of amusement;  
Indeed, it was her first amuse of the day.

_So Odo the wizard was seen as a jape,  
__And caused her much laughter just then;  
__"Oh, pardon my laugh, but your hat inside out  
__Is too funny for words, do ye ken?"_

The gentleman Odo took off said amusement  
And gestured with it in a great manly bow;  
"Milady, I beg you, forgive my appearance;  
I'm Odo the wizard, at your service now."

_"Ginevra I am, just a farm girl, no more;  
__No doubt quite a fool for my laugh;  
__I didn't come by to humiliate you,  
__But in search of my favourite calf."_

"Then that is our quest now!" said Odo the wizard,  
And into the meadow went he and the girl;  
Need I say he found the young lass quite attractive,  
From toe-tip to top of her highest red curl.

_Ginevra and Odo, alas, weren't alone;  
__A bull stood, so mad he could cuss;  
__His small mind decided to flatten the two,  
__And he charged down the field in a fuss. _

Ginevra beheld him. and ladylike, fainted;  
And Odo lamented, "It would be my luck!"  
His wand proved quite useless; but storm clouds had gathered,  
And as the bull leapt, lucky lightning bolts struck.

_The bull condescended to stop in his tracks  
__And then drop to the ground, very dead.  
__Ginevra revived, and she saw not a corpse  
__But dear Odo, still standing instead._

"Hail, Odo the hero!" she said, and she kissed him;  
"You saved me!" she said with aplomb and much joy.  
"Well, yeah, just a bit," said our Odo the hero,  
Accepting acclaim, though he was just a boy.

_She led him to town and her parents she told,  
__For truly her heart was so full.  
__"Hail, Odo the hero!" they sang in their joy,  
__And they ordered a feast of roast bull._

The townspeople, likewise, hailed Odo the hero  
With cheers and huzzahs, and a fine-sounding band;  
Ginevra's dear parents saw more in the bargain  
And offered our hero Ginevra's own hand.

_"Not lightly I'd take it without her own wish,"  
__said Odo, so gentlemanly.  
__She paused not a moment, but plighted her troth,  
__And said she Lady Odo wouldst be._

The great day arrived, and she peeked in her dowry  
For old, lent and blue to be worn by the bride;  
She crawled in the trunk and she searched on the bottom;  
The lid fell, and locked poor Ginevra inside.

_So Odo the bridegroom was waiting at church,  
__But no blushing Ginevra came 'round  
__Alas, his intended, his lady so fair,  
__was nowhere at all to be found._

And Odo the heartsick cried out to the skies;  
Musy sadness win out in his life, as a rule?  
He packed up his wand, turned his hat inside out,  
And departed Glenfinnan that day for the school.

_And Odo the student for years learnt his spells,  
__And he mastered his hexes and charms,  
__Then returned to Glenfinnan to wait for the day  
__Of Ginevra's return to his arms. _

And Odo the hero protected Glenfinnan  
From armies and weather and magic abuse.  
One day, in the midst of a fight with a dragon,  
The mayor approached him with terrible news.

_"O Odo, you're busy, with much on your hands,  
__And although we should leave you alone,  
__We thought we should tell you Ginevra is found --  
__But she's naught but some hair and some bone."_

And Odo decided his life was a failure,  
His parents in gaol and his fair lady died;  
He snapped his fine wand and said, "Come, dragon, cook me!  
I can't do much worse!" and the dragon complied.

_**And Odo the hero, they bore him back home  
To the place that he'd known as a lad;  
They laid him to rest with his hat inside out  
And his wand snapped in two, which was sad.**_

_**

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**_

(Credits: Closing verse by JK Rowling, which we respectfully quote with disclaim. The encounter is based on the tale of Ben Franklin meeting his wife-to-be; her kiss on Ron's kiss from Fleur, in GoF; her demise on the legend of Ginevra, bride of Lord Lovel. Gigglesworth and Wiggleswick are actual villages in England.) 


End file.
